On Nov. 4, leaders from Penn State, Penn State Hershey Medical Center and the College of Medicine, along with more than 125 guests, celebrated the longstanding philanthropic partnership of Warren Gittlen and the Jake Gittlen Memorial Golf Tournament.

Penn State College of Medicine researchers have developed a nanoparticle to deliver a melanoma-fighting drug directly to the cancer. Delivering cancer drugs directly to tumors is difficult. Scientists are working on new approaches to overcome the natural limitations of drugs, including loading them into nanoparticles.

The pediatric cancer research of Penn State Hershey’s Dr. Hong-Gang Wang has received a $250,000 grant from Hyundai Hope On Wheels. The funds will support his research into whether autophagy – the human cell’s self-cleansing mechanism – can be used to make cancer cells die.

Penn State Hershey Cancer Institute is the Big Ten Cancer Research Consortium (CRC) featured member institution for the month of August. Visit www.BigTenCRC.org and click on “Featured Member” to read a Q&A with Cancer Institute Director Dr. Raymond Hohl, who explains more about Penn State Hershey’s role in the Big Ten CRC and what the Cancer Institute brings to the consortium. Penn State Hershey is one of 12 member institutions of the Big Ten CRC.

Subpopulations of breast cancer cells sometimes cooperate to aid tumor growth, according to Penn State College of Medicine researchers, who believe that understanding the relationship between cancer subpopulations could lead to new targets for cancer treatment.

Mark A. Neidig Sr., executive director of the Kanzius Cancer Research Foundation, will visit Penn State Erie, The Behrend College on Tuesday, April 8, as part of the School of Engineering’s Spring 2014 Speaker Event. The presentation is free and open to the public, and free parking will be available in the deck located behind Burke Center, off Technology Drive.

Each month, the Community Service team at Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center learns about different community service activities being performed by members of the Penn State Hershey campus. At a recent monthly meeting, Betsy Aumiller, assistant professor in the Department of Public Health Sciences, shared information about a project that she is a co-investigator on, "Increasing participation in cancer research studies in central PA: A Pilot Study" for Dauphin, Mifflin and Juniata counties.

Many communities in rural Pennsylvania and New York are beleaguered by persistent poverty; residents in this area, known as northern Appalachia, are considered by the National Institutes of Health to be medically underserved. Cancer incidence and death are increased for many of these communities. Enter the Northern Appalachia Cancer Network (NACN)--a community-academic partnership that aims to reduce the cancer burden in Appalachian Pennsylvania and New York through community-based research. This network is the recipient of the Northeast region's W.K. Kellogg Foundation/C. Peter Magrath University Community Engagement Award.

Researchers have discovered how a mole develops into melanoma by showing the interaction of two key proteins involved in 60-70 percent of tumors. The Penn State scientists also demonstrate that therapeutic targeting of these proteins is necessary for drugs to effectively treat this deadly form of cancer.

Penn State scientists are the first to observe in living cells a key step in the creation of adenine and guanine, two of the four building blocks that comprise DNA. Also called purines, the two building blocks are essential for cell replication. The findings, which will be published in the April 4 issue of the journal Science, could lead to new cancer treatments that prevent cancer cells from replicating by interfering with their abilities to make purines.